What is Outpost?

As an interaction designer in the team

My job was to design interactions for our car and interior of
Outpost cabin. My goal was bringing not just a set of trendy UI,
but also a well-rounded experience to Audi Outpost.

Our target customer

We provide opportunities for people who live in the city but
love to experience outdoor activities.

Initial concept for Outpost experience (storyboard)

User journey and possible UI opportunities

Initial concept for in-car UI

The original design of our car is a four-seater with 3
passengers and single driver (This design was later ditched
because we also wanted include at least one passenger in the
front row for him/her as an off-road driving assistant).

In this earlier draft, I mapped the display and control surface
based on our (car) interior’s package design.

Mockup image of driver controls

Driver will have a panoramic display showing navigation and
vehicle information. Since our driver will be driving off-road,
touchscreen won’t be a good choice. We thought tactile
controllers, like physical knobs, would work better. There will
be one control knob on each side as well as two control dials on
the steering wheel.

Wireframe of driver controls

A wireframe and screen-flow I did for our original knob control
idea.

Mockup image of smart table

The smart table serves as a control and display surface for the
passengers. They can access a variety of controls and
information on the table such as navigation, climate control,
and entertainment.

Smart table shell concept

In order to create more room in the cabin, we had an idea to
fold and hide the table when it’s not in used. The table will be
hidden under a shell. The shell serves as an arm rest as well as
a touch control surface.

Window UI

Road trip (autonomous) mode
During road-trip mode the car will tell passengers about nearby
vista spots they may be interested in. They can tell the car to
go to those spots by pressing the “GO” button using gesture
control.

Off-road (AI assist) mode
During off-road driving mode, the car will display virtual
gauges as well as driving lines and hazard markers to assist its
driver. If the driver is new to off-roading, the car will
provide driving tips.

Off-road driving spotter study

In off-roading a spotter is the second set of eyes to help a
driver navigate difficult obstacles. We study hand signals used
by spotters because we want to create a virtual spotter to
replace the human one. We were thinking this could be done by
using sensors on the drone or around the car.

Virtual spotter demo

After the research and sketch, I made a short demo video to
showcase how the virtual spotter works.

Spotter indicator hidden
When there’s no spotting needed, nothing will be shown on
the display.

Throttle and right steering indicator shown
When the throttle indicator (green) shows up, the car is
telling the driver to push down on the accelerator paddle.
The indicator will disappear when there’s enough
acceleration and the driver can let go of the paddle. The
steering indicator (yellow) works the same way. It shows up
when there is steering needed. It would disappear when
there’s enough steering.

Break and left steering indicator shown
When break indicator (red) shows up, the car is telling
driver to step on the break until the indicator disappear.

UI style board

I made this UI style board for our midterm presentation. It
showcased to our instructors and sponsor about the look we are
going after for our final UI design.